History

Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, Sr. was one of the most frequent of Captain Marvel's foes in the Golden Age, where he was depicted as an intelligent, but dangerous scientist. After years of not appearing in any comics (due to rights issues) he later appeared in the Shazam!, with his and the Marvel families' absences "in universe" explanation of their absence being blamed on the Sivana family attempting to trap the Marvel's in a "Suspendium sphere", but inadvertently trapping themselves as well.

His 40`s version is in public domain. But not the DC-version(s).

Post-Crisis

Sivana made several appearances in the Shazam! book during Crisis on Infinite Earths. Sivana later appeared in the Shazam! The New Beginning miniseries, and changes were made to his family (only two children instead of four) but this persona didn't stick. With the miniseries, the Power of Shazam!, Sivana was given some character defining changes. He retained his "mad scientist" persona, but was also written as a business tycoon, with a mind for politics. He was one of the richest men in Fawcett City, and was involved with organized crime. His scientific mind and business and political know-how made him comparable to the likes of Lex Luthor. An expedition in Egypt, funded by Sivana, which included Billy Batson's parents, had ultimately led to the creation of Captain Marvel, who would become the protector of Fawcett City. The expedition led to the deaths of Billy's parents at the hands of Theo Adam, who at the time, was one of Sivana's lackeys. This also seemed to has resulted in failing of his business. He blamed Captain Marvel for his misfortune and became obsessed with eliminating him. Ultimately, Captain Marvel destroyed Sivana's business empire and research facility rendering him resource-less and bitter. He was also forced to join forces with the Venusian creature Mr.Mind, who required his extensive knowledge of science for his plans in taking over the world. He managed to break free and with the help of Captain Marvel, managed to beat Mr.Mind, before teleporting away.

After failing to stop Captain Marvel with an army of giant robots, Sivana asks Luthor for aid. With Luthor's help he managed to discover Captain Marvel's identity. With his newfound information he hired mercenaries to kill Billy Batson in his normal form. He changed to Captain Marvel, but one of his friends was hit by a ricocheting bullet and died in the hospital. Furious, Billy discovered who was behind the hit, by forcing the answer out of one of the mercenaries held at the police station. Billy confronted Sivana and nearly choked him to death, but he regained control of his emotions and flew away.

With Shazam away mentoring Marvel, and the fact that the then current guardian Ibis wasn't doing his job well, he later came across the Rock of Eternity, and discovered that he could manipulate time according to his whim. Taking advantage of the fact, he altered the timestream to make himself mayor of Fawcett City. He also changed it so that Billy's parents were never killed, thus never resulting in the formation of Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel. Billy's father had become Captain Marvel, and later discovered that the timeline is wrong and sacrificed himself in an effort to restore the timestream back to normal. Following the restoration of the correct timeline, Sivana ends up in prison.

Sivana's subsequent appearances were scarce, but he later emerged as regrouping the Fearsome Five, and in reviving one of the members (Shimmer), who had previously died. The revival was a success, but an argument Sivana resulted with Sivana shooting Gizmo, which resulted in his death, because he felt that he was challenging his position as the team's science expert. Sivana later managed to establish a hideout for himself on a little known island. Sivana soon shifted his focus on Outsiders, and hired a number of villains, including Joker and Deathstroke, to deal with them.

He developed a bomb which would reduce the human mind to only being able to perform basic functions such as walking. Using this bomb on Sydney, he managed to lure The Outsiders to his lair. Having affected Nightwing and Katana, he revealed his plans to them before healing them. Katana was less than impressed and unleashed Sabbac to wreck Sivana's hideout. Sivana managed to escape.

Infinite Crisis and Beyond

Sivana appeared during the events of Infinite Crisis, albeit briefly. Following this Sivana had captured Mr.Mind , who he found lying in a crater. During the events of 52, Intergang rounded up various scientists of the DC Universe and sent them to Oolong island, which later briefly came to be known as Science Island. Having the freedom to experiment with and develop whatever they pleased, Sivana and the rest of the scientists on the island developed various inventions. Sivana designed a number of weapons, and also assisted in the creation of the Four Horsemen of Apokolips. He was personally responsible for the creation of Sobek, the Horseman of famine. Previously, he had carried out various experiments on Mr.Mind using his "Suspendium" technology. While Sivana was away, it managed to break free. Due, to the experiments, it is transformed into a giant moth-like creature ("hyperfly"), with the ability to travel through time and throughout the multiverse, becoming an extremely dangerous threat. Mr.Mind was defeated by Booster Gold, and was sent back to captivity in Sivana's lab.

Later, Sivana is seen as part of Luthor's Injustice Society, involved in the attack on the Justice League during Green Arrow's and Black Canary's wedding. After this, Ollie returns to find Connor Hawke missing. While looking for him, he found that Sivana had rendered Conner Hawke mindless by using a neural patch. He was soon defeated and Connor is rescued. It was later discovered that Sivana had made a deal with Shado to actually save her and Connor's son Robert, who was dying of leukemia. Thanks to Sivana, Connor managed to come out of his coma. However, this event would have long term effects on Conner's physical and mental state, including memory loss and gaining a healing factor.

Dr. Sivana was one of the villains sent to planet Salvation. He helped in the development of the ship that helped all of the prisoners escape. During the events of Final Crisis, Sivana was asked to join Libra's Secret Society. He was seen alongside Libra, when confronting the Calculator. He later allied himself with Lex Luthor in attempting to overthrow Libra. This was after he had seen his own daughter affected by Libra's machinations. He helped create a device to negate the Justifiers' helmets. Sivana and Luthor were responsible for constructing the Miracle Machine which helped save reality from Darkseid.

Sivana was recently hired by Deathstroke to cure his son, Jericho, who's body was suffering from massive cellular breakdown. Sivana built a device called the Methuselah which derived its power from several different sources such as technology stolen from the Atom, a powerful metahuman named DJ Molecule, and a sample of blood from Supergirl. After the device successfully healed Jericho, Deathstroke and Sivana offered to use it to resurrect the deceased loved ones of Deathstroke's team consisting of Tattooed Man, Osiris, Cheshire, Roy Harper, and Cinder as payment for their services. Only Roy and Cinder objected, which lead to a brawl with the rest of the team. After Cinder destroyed the Methuselah, Sivana was saved from the explosion by Osiris. He promised Osiris that he would attempt to recreate the Methuselah to resurrect Black Adam if Osiris promised to kill the wizard Shazam. Osiris accepted his offer.

The New 52

Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (before the magic)

Dr. Sivana is introduced in the back up feature of Justice League #7. Sivana is piecing together accounts of complete strangers walking off of buses or walking through doors and entering Shazam's base - the Rock of Eternity. He believes the vanishings are similar to how Teth-Adam became Black Adam. Sivana states that he studied the secrets of science to save his family. Science has failed him and he now searches the realms of magic to find a miracle. Dr. Sivana traveled to an excavation site 45 miles away from Baghdad. When he attempts to open the tomb of Black Adam a bolt of lightning strikes him. When he turns around to the workers, where the right eye was there is a small cosmos and the lightning symbol of Shazam over his right eye socket. The search continues despite his "injury" and with Sivana's new eye he can see magic. The ancient textreveals that Black Adam will be imprisoned behind the wall until someone who can destroy him can be found. Translating the writing, he discovers that all that is needed to awaken Black Adam is the word "Shazam". After stating the word the tomb explodes and Black Adam arises, demanding to see the Wizard in his native language. Doctor Sivana takes Black Adam to the city to show the advancement of of civilization. They go to The Rock of Eternity where Sivana's body can not channel the power. They decide to locate The Seven Deadly Sins and begin with Sloth. Once all The Seven Deadly Sins have been located and Black Adam has finally located Captain Marvel Sivana is quickly abandoned. He looks into the sky watching Adam fly into the night sky yelling that his body can not contain the magic within him. He goes back to search for the entrance to The Rock of Eternity. He locates the entrance and hears the voice of Mr. Mind. Mr. Mind is encased within a glass container and within that container is a glass jar. Mr. Mind formally introduces himself and tells Sivana they will be the best of friends.

Other Info

Among other inventions, Sivana developed the "Unternet", an undetectable network system used by the criminal underworld, using technology based on the Rhodomagnetic Spectrum. This was later stolen and corrupted by Darkseid.

Powers and Abilities

Although Sivana possesses no super-powers of his own, he has genius level intelligence which allows him to give him a technological advantage in battle, by creating various weapons and gadgets. He is also very business savvy and has a cunning mind.

Other Versions

Sivana appears in the story Justice as a patient in Arkham Asylum. He had created mind controlling robot worms based off of Mr. Mind, but had been double crossed by Brainiac. The Green Lantern heals him, and he gives the heroes information on the villains.

Animation

Batman: Brave and the Bold

Dr. Sivana with Black Adam in Batman: Brave and the Bold.

Sivana, alongside his children Jr. and Georgia, appear as villains in the episode "The Power of Shazam!". In the episode, the Sivana family find a way to bring Black Adam back from his exile, promising him a chance to get revenge on the wizard Shazam. Sivana ends up double crossing Adam, stealing the Wizard's power for himself. As the superpowered Captain Sivana, he fights Batman to a standstill. Batman tricks Sivana into saying the word Shazam, reverting him to his human form, in which he is promptly beaten.